The price of domestically produced satellite engines has been reduced.

Currently, the commercial remote sensing technology capabilities used for Earth observation in our country are constantly being iterated and accelerated in network construction. According to incomplete statistics, the total planned number of remote sensing satellites exceeds 10,000. In order to break through the bottleneck of remote sensing data utilization, some remote sensing constellations are also deploying AI chips on satellites. Industry insiders analyze that if remote sensing data can be fully realized in-orbit AI analysis and processing, the amount of data that needs to be transmitted can be reduced by 5% to 10% compared to before. From installing electric propulsion systems, which are like "engines," to providing energy with flexible solar panels, a group of platform-level hard technologies are accelerating from the laboratory to the production line, supporting the large-scale deployment of our country's satellite constellation. In a aerospace product laboratory in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, an electric propulsion system is undergoing a so-called ignition test in a simulated space environment. The blue plasma halo is the effect of ionizing inert gases such as xenon and krypton, and then accelerating the ions out with a magnetic field. The thrust it generates is enough for the satellite to navigate in space. This is also one of the most advanced space propulsion technologies currently available. When low-orbit satellites are running, they rely on thrusters to maintain orbit, switch orbits, and carry out end-of-life deorbiting tasks. This domestically-produced electric propulsion system can expel ions at a speed of 15 to 30 kilometers per second, with efficiency more than five times that of chemical propulsion. Although the thrust is only tens of millinewtons, equivalent to the force needed to lift a sheet of A4 paper, it excels in being able to sustain output. Today, this electric propulsion system, with independent intellectual property rights, has reached international advanced level in terms of performance, and can be adapted to different mission requirements in the commercial aerospace field. The price has also decreased from nearly 2 million yuan for a set of traditional aerospace missions to the current 500,000 to 700,000 yuan.